Aeschylus' Agamemnon

The first chorus

It was sung - as with most songs you can probably get
the drift without understanding all the words in full detail. However
these notes might help!

(l.45) War has been
going on for 10 years (and still is as far as we know)

Agamemnon & Menelaus,
sons of Atreus, joint kings of Argos, led a huge army off on a rescue
mission.

(55) They were like
vultures robbed of nestlings: angry, but helpless - unless gods
intervene to punish the robbers.

(66) Gods did intervene
to help Agamemnon & Menelaus punish Paris for taking Helen -
because Paris, in taking her, violated the guest/host relationship
(xenia). Zeus' most important job is to protect guests and hosts.
Paris' punishment is inevitable.

(80) We (the chorus)
are very old men - too old to fight 10 years ago. They have little
time

(92) Why is the queen
(Clytaemnestra, Agamemnon's wife) making sacrifices at all the altars
in Argos? Some disaster?

(112) We remember when
the army left - the terrible omen. Two eagles tore open a pregnant
hare in full view of all.

(126) Calchas the seer
explained it: Agamemnon & Menelaus will take Troy, but anger
Artemis, the goddess who protects all innocent creatures (including
the victims when Troy is sacked).

(140) She will stop
the fleet sailing unless there is a sacrifice...

(150) ...the mother
of the innocent victim is waiting for revenge...

(161) We don't understand
the gods - but we believe Zeus has a rule: it is through suffering
that men learn (i.e. there is a good purpose behind all this
horror). From the gods comes "violent love". They hurt us, but for
our good in the end.

pathos = mathos:
suffering = learning)

(185) The army, becalmed
at Aulis, was falling apart through hunger and boredom. Calchas
told Agamemnon that Artemis would stop the winds until he sacrificed
his daughter Iphigeneia.

(205) Agamemnon is
trapped: if he doesn't kill Iphigeneia, then he will anger Zeus.
If he does, he will anger Artemis and his wife. Whatever he does
will be right AND wrong.

(216) He decided to
kill her - they slaughtered her like an animal ignoring her innocence,
her beauty and her screams.